The year 2025 went down in history as the year the “Dead Internet Theory” stopped being a fringe conspiracy and became a measurable reality. We are witnessing a digital and ecological catastrophe driven by a singular human desire: the pursuit of views at any cost.
As of February 2026, the internet is no longer a tool for human connection; it has become a self-sustaining loop of “AI Slop”—mass-produced, low-quality content designed to manipulate algorithms and harvest ad revenue. But the damage isn’t just digital. Our obsession with synthetic engagement is physically destroying the planet.
1. The Digital Ouroboros: Why the Internet is “Cooked”
In 2025, researchers confirmed that over 95% of social media engagement—the likes, the comments, and the shares—is generated by bots interacting with other bots. This has created a “Digital Ouroboros,” where AI-generated content (slop) is posted to trigger bot-driven engagement, which then signals platform algorithms to push that content to real humans.
- The Content Collapse: By late 2025, search engines like Google reported that up to 74% of new web pages were partially or fully AI-generated.
- Marketplace Erosion: On platforms like Amazon and Trustpilot, AI-generated reviews surged to 18%, making it nearly impossible for consumers to verify product quality.
2. The Ecological Bill: Powering the Slop
Every time a user generates an AI image or a deepfake video for a viral TikTok, a physical cost is paid in a data center thousands of miles away.
- Electricity Consumption: By the end of 2025, global data center energy consumption surpassed 1,000 terawatt-hours, placing “The Cloud” on par with Japan as a global energy consumer.
- The Water Crisis: Cooling high-performance chips required over 5 billion gallons of fresh water in 2025, leading to conflicts in water-stressed regions like Arizona and the Netherlands.
- Carbon Footprint: A single AI-generated video burns roughly 1 kilowatt-hour of electricity and emits 466 grams of carbon.
3. The “View” Addiction
The public’s role in this destruction is the “Incentive Gap.” Because platforms monetize views rather than value, creators use AI to “flood the zone.” The marginal cost of content has gone to zero, but the ecological and social cost has reached a breaking point. We are trading the health of our planet for temporary spikes in a “View Count” that is increasingly populated by machines.
Conclusion: In 2026, we need a “Digital Sobriety” movement. To save the internet and the planet, we must stop the slop and return to human-authored expertise.